Police force used in downtown arrest under review

Manuel Gamiz Jr., Of The Morning Call

Cristhian Ramirez was riding with two friends in downtown Allentown when a police car flashed its lights behind them. Within minutes of the stop, an Allentown police officer was barking orders at Ramirez — in English, a language he has trouble understanding.

The night ended with Ramirez, 33, of Bethlehem, being thrown to the ground, kneed twice by one officer and punched by another as they tried to handcuff him, a video recorded by a bystander and obtained by The Morning Call shows. After Ramirez is handcuffed, an officer appears to knee him a third time and throw him against a car.

The charge? Disorderly conduct, a summary offense that typically results in a fine.

After seeing the video, which was shot May 23, Allentown police are reviewing the officers' use of force as part of an internal investigation, Assistant Chief Glen Dorney said.

"We're going to review it amongst ourselves and then we'll determine whether or not anything was done wrong," Dorney said after he and Capt. Bill Lake watched the video with a Morning Call reporter and editor Thursday. He said police also will view any video from city surveillance cameras in the area.

The police department reviews all complaints about use of force, Dorney said. He was unaware police had used force in the Sixth Street stop, he said, because he was not informed of the incident until The Morning Call shared the video. Ramirez, Dorney noted, never filed a complaint about the stop.

Dorney said Allentown police are allowed to use force to get suspects under control. While watching the video, Dorney was asked if Allentown's policy allows an officer to knee a suspect who is handcuffed, which is what appears to happen in the video, and he repeated that the incident will be reviewed. He declined to detail the police department's policy on use of force or release the names of the officers involved, saying the incident was a "personnel" matter.

Ramirez was charged with disorderly conduct after he "resisted detention by police in roadway," according to his citation. He was released shortly after the incident, which occurred about 11:45 p.m. on a Friday night, on Sixth Street between Hamilton and Linden streets, outside the former Minich jewelry store. The stop drew at least a half-dozen police cars, the video shows.

Juan Bermudez, of Phillipsburg, N.J., who shot the video as he left work, said he saw at least 10 police vehicles on the scene.

When Morning Call reporters on May 24 and 25 asked Lake, the public information officer on duty, why numerous police cars had been on the block at that time, Lake said the shift supervisor gave him no information about any response there. On Wednesday, Lake told the Morning Call a disorderly conduct citation was filed in district court for the incident.

Dorney said an officer followed the station wagon Ramirez was riding in after the driver, a woman whose name has not been released, committed a traffic violation. He didn't specify the violation.

Ramirez, in a brief interview Thursday, said in Spanish that the driver, known to him by her nickname, went the wrong way down a one-way street.

Dorney said she didn't pull over for two blocks before stopping. He said the woman was cited because she was not properly licensed and the vehicle was towed. She and Ramirez were in the car with a third woman, who was not cited.

While the officer, whose name was not released, was talking to the driver, he saw an open beer bottle at Ramirez's feet in the back seat and saw him reaching into his waistband, Dorney said. The officer pulled Ramirez out of the vehicle because of the "furtive movements he's making in the back of the car."

"It looked like he was either concealing something or tucking something," Dorney said. "They thought it may have potentially been a gun, so that's why they pulled him out of the car, which they are entitled to do for their own safety."

Ramirez said he had been drinking at home before he and his friends got in the car. He said he may have reached for the door when police pulled them over but doesn't believe he did anything to warrant their reaction.

They "treated me like a criminal," he said.

The video starts with Ramirez standing outside the car as an officer searches him.

"Stay where you are or I'm going to [expletive] drive you for free," the officer shouts at Ramirez.

Ramirez appears to look back at the officer, who responds, "Dude, I'm telling you, don't [unintelligible] around and we won't have any problems."

Three seconds later, the officer yanks Ramirez away from the vehicle and pushes him down to the street. Ramirez lands on his knees and uses his right hand to keep himself propped up. He looks up at the officer who is trying to handcuff him.

A second officer handcuffs the driver, then assists the other officer in handcuffing Ramirez.

The first officer knees Ramirez twice in the thigh or side while the second officer appears to punch him at least twice in the shoulder or back while shouting expletive-filled orders for him to give up his right hand.

"Don't hit him," the woman screams as the officers struggle to handcuff Ramirez.

After Ramirez is cuffed, the first officer appears to knee him as he lies in the street. The officer then yanks Ramirez to his feet and slams him against the station wagon, the impact shaking the vehicle and causing a loud thud.

Hearing the thud, a woman waiting for a taxi across the street blurts, "What the hell!"

"There could never be a good enough reason to strike someone who is handcuffed," she said. "There is no remote police justification."

She added that her organization has litigated cases in New York and Philadelphia where "furtive movements" prompted police to stop and frisk people. The term, she said, is too vague.

"That's code for 'We don't have a reason for frisking them,' " she said.

Roper, who did not see the video, said the Allentown officers who handcuffed Ramirez should have brought the use of force to their superiors' attention, regardless of whether Ramirez filed a complaint.

"If you have a policy of reviewing use of force, the officers should have an obligation to report it," she said. "You don't review by waiting for which members of the public complain."

Dorney said police had no choice but to detain Ramirez after he reached into his waistband.

"Not [put him] under arrest, just detain him," Dorney emphasized, "so he can't access any weapons if there are any there."

Ramirez was patted down after being pulled out of the car but continued to reach into his waistband, Dorney said. Following protocol, he said, the officers tried to handcuff him so they could continue to search him.

Dorney said Ramirez continued to "squirm" after being told that if he didn't stop, he would be taken to the ground.

He was taken to the police station to defuse the situation, Lake said. But he was not held.

Numerous police cars and officers remained on the scene for some time, and some officers can be seen on the video looking into the station wagon before it is towed.